Chapter One
Skye
Today, I will be awarded to the man the government has selected for me. He was selected for me based on our gene sequencing and the probability that we would be able to create new life through our coupling. Since I was sixteen, I knew this day would come.
Since the moment my Proving Test came back positive, my life has not been my own. I was removed from the Proving Center and taken to an unspecified location. When I arrived at the House of Fertility, I was assigned a room and a Keeper. The older female assigned to be my Keeper would teach me all I needed to know about being a Partner and mother.
There were many other girls at the House of Fertility, and we spent many hours together. Some of the girls were excited for their training, to move on to being a partner and a mother. But some of us, like myself, were terrified of what lay ahead.
We were taught how to sew, cook, and clean. However, we were not taught about the birthing process or about sex. We were told that birthing was natural and that our bodies would take over. Sex was something our Partner would teach us. We were taught that males each had their own likes and dislikes, and we were only to do as we were told.
As the day of my Partnership approached, more and more fear enveloped me.
“What are you so worried about, Skye?” my friend Aspen questions. She watches me closely as she waits for me to answer.
I throw my hands in the air with a loud sigh. “Everything!” I exclaim. “What if he is a cruel man? What if he isn’t happy with me? What if…”
“Stop.” Aspen holds up her hand. “Take a breath and think this through. Your Partner will be just as grateful to have you as you are to be there. Why wouldn’t he be?”
“That’s easy to say.” I shake my head. “But we have all heard the stories. Of girls that don’t satisfy their Partners. Girls that go missing after the birth of a child.”
“Those are just stories,” Aspen answers.
Her naivety is something I have always disliked about her. She is a great friend and a beautiful girl, but sometimes I fear for her. Can she really be this stupid? Does she actually believe that the moment a female is handed off to her Partner that everything in the world will just be right? Because I sure as hell don’t. Our lives aren’t part of a fairytale with a prince charming waiting at the other end of the rainbow.
“Yes,” I mumble, rising from my spot on the balcony to move indoors. “Maybe you are right, and I just need to relax.”
“See.” Aspen follows me into my room. “Why don’t you take a long relaxing bath? Besides, I should leave you alone to get ready.”
Today, I will be given over to my Partner. I am finally eighteen years old and have to fulfill my duty to my country and my nation. I don’t turn around or answer her, but I do hear the click of the door closing as she finally leaves. Looking around, I stare at the opulence afforded to every fertile female before she is assigned her Partner.
My room is as big as the house I grew up in. A large four-poster bed takes up the majority of the space. All the furnishings are polished cherry wood. The entire area is decorated in shades of pink, gray, and white. Oh, God, how I hate pink. If my Partner allows it, I will never wear pink again.
The bathroom is spacious and luxurious, with a large claw-foot tub in the middle. Beside it are shelves filled with all kinds of salts and oils. Turning the water, I pour in bubbles before removing my clothes and staring at myself in the floor-to-ceiling mirror that runs the entire length of the wall.
I don’t know if my Partner will be satisfied with me. I appraise my naked form in the mirror and see nothing exceptional. Light-brown hair hangs to the middle of my back, and unexceptional brown eyes stare back at me and my pale skin. My breasts are smaller than all the other girls, and I don’t have a figure to speak of.
Turning away, I submerge my body in the water, hoping to leave my troubled thoughts behind while I soak. But there isn’t any time for that as my Keeper enters without even knocking. There is little to no privacy at the House of Fertility.
“Skye, really?” my Keeper, Ana, admonishes from the entrance of the bathroom. “There are less than three hours before you meet your Partner, and you a lying about in the bath. Get going, young lady.”
Three hours is more than enough time for me to get ready, but instead of starting yet another argument, I wash my hair and body. I will meet my Partner shortly.